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Reviewer: Foodnut.com Spasso 769 Laurel Street (Near Olive) San Carlos, CA 94070 650-592-5886 650-592-2041 (Fax) |
Spasso is a neighborhood Italian restaurant in San Carlos’ Laurel Street business corridor. There are 5 Italian restaurants within one block!
Decor, Vibe – Spasso has a narrow dining room with a long bar in the front. Decent decor but not overly fancy. It was pretty full when we dined. Lots of locals of all ages and ethniticities including many families.
Spasso Menu Pictures (Click to zoom into any picture)
Picks:
Hummus with Pita ($4.50) garbanzo beans, tahini, lemon and olive oil was excellent with lots of fresh hummus and pita bread. A nice cheap starter.
Marinated Teriyaki Skirt Steak ($21) with garlic mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables topped with onion rings was cooked to our desire and had a nice sweet texture to the meat. Mashed potatoes were soft and not too buttery.
Kid’s Pasta ($5.95) Penne with butter sauce was above average. Nice freshly grated parmesan cheese. It comes with some ice cream.
Warm Apple Peach Cobbler ($6.50) with Warm Carmel and Musket Bourdeaux Sorbetto on top was excellent. Hot out of the oven, good portion size, balanced with limited sweetness. The Sorbetto was home made and very complex in flavor. We substituted that for the vanilla ice cream it usually comes with.
OK:
Warm Cabbage Salad ($7.50) crispy pepper bacon, mushrooms, blue cheese, warm red wine vinaigrette was almost too big, but the dressing was pretty bland.
Polenta Cubes ($5) fried Polenta with blue cheese, Balsamic reduction, and lots of tomato sauce was decent but lacked intense polenta flavor.
Stuffed Prawn Risotto ($23) Lemon Risotto served with Dungeness crab stuffed prawns had a very strong a lemon flavor in it. The Prawns with crab meat on top were plentiful, fresh, and tasty.
Pans:
None
Spasso had very good service with the server or bus boy coming by fairly often. Server was not the friendliest we’ve encountered but competent. This is one of the better places in the San Carlos Laurel street corridor, but clearly not in the same league as say A16, Delfina, or Acquellero in San Francisco. Donato Enoteca in Redwood City is also better.
Spasso has a medium sized wine list with wine by glass from $5.50, by the bottle from $22, flights from $14.
San Carlos restaurants reviewed on this block: Piacere, Spasso, Speederia Pizza, Town. Nearby: Mack’s Smoked Barbecue
Spasso Overall Rating: 
(Good
Come Back? 
| Food Rating: | (Good) |
| Service Rating: |  (Very Good) |
| Atmosphere Rating: | (Good) |
| Value Rating: | (Good) |
Guide: 0 = poor, 1 = Below/Average, 2 = Good, 2.5 = Very Good, 3 = Excellent , 4 = Extraordinary
| Alcohol: | Beer, Wine |
| Attire: | Casual |
| Hours: | Daily 11am - 2:30pm, Mon - Sat 5-10pm, Sun 5-9pm |
| Parking: | Street |
| Reservations: | Yes |
| Prices: | $13 - $27 (Dinner) |
2 Comments
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